


Stray Hybrids (Stray Kids Hybrid AU One Shot Series)

by HoratioK



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Bunny Hybrid Seo Changbin, Cat Hybrid Lee Felix (Stray Kids), Cat Hybrid Lee Minho | Lee Know, Dog Hybrid Kim Seungmin, Fennec Fox Hybrid Yang Jeongin | I.N, Fluff, Gen, Hybrids, Panther Hybrid Hwang Hyunjin, Squirrel Hybrid Han Jisung | Han, Wolf Hybrid Bang Chan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29014614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoratioK/pseuds/HoratioK
Summary: The concept of hybrids was one that absolutely disgusted you. The mere idea of "owning" another living being made you shudder. Hybrids may have been half animal, but they had a human side, too, and they were just as capable of thinking for themselves as humans were. So why exactly did they have to be pets? The thought made you extremely uncomfortable. Yeah, there was no way in hell you'd ever take in a hybrid.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 60





	1. Collars For Minho

The sound of your phone ringing in your pocket brought you out of your thoughts. Shifting the grocery bags in your right hand over to your left, you reached into your pocket and checked to see who was calling you - your annoying neighbor, of course. Rolling your eyes, you pressed the decline button (and you had to press it multiple times, because it was December and your supposed "touchscreen friendly" gloves were NOT working), knowing full well that he was calling you because he knew you were out in town, probably hoping you'd run some obscure errand for him again. Just as you were about to put your phone back into the pocket of your overcoat, he called again, ruining your plans of ignoring him.

"(Name)! Hey! How's my favorite neighbor?"

"What do you want?" You grumbled, irritated.

"You're gonna be passing by the adoption center on your way home, right?"

"The hybrid adoption center?"

"Yeah."

"Hmmmm..." You pretended to think about it. Of course, the answer was yes, yes you were going to be passing by the hybrid adoption center on your way home. But did you want to run your neighbor's stupid errand? "No, I don't believe I will. Why?"

He laughed. "Silly (Name), of course you will! Can you pick up some of the collars I ordered for Minho? I got an email saying that they were ready for me to pick up. You just have to go in and ask for it at the front desk. Thanks!" With that, he hung up, not giving you the chance to argue.

You sighed. You really, really couldn't stand your spunky neighbor. He was extremely irresponsible, and lazy, and his little "favors" annoyed you to no end. You'd probably be ok with it if he were willing to do some things for you in return, or if he didn't ask so often, but he _didn't_ and he _did_ and that was something that irritated you.

If nothing else, you found his hybrid rather cute. Minho, a long-haired cat hybrid with brown furry ears and a fluffy tail, and chocolate brown hair to match. Since your neighbor was at work from 5 am to 6 pm, the cat hybrid would often come from across the hall to bother you instead. Hell, you were the one feeding him half the time, since he usually ate both breakfast and lunch with you and raided your pantry for snacks throughout the day. You enjoyed his company, as you worked from home and his play sessions provided you with a distraction while you took a break, but it still annoyed you that your neighbor couldn't take care of his own hybrid. Seriously, why did he even _get_ Minho if he wasn't going to take care of him?

That was another thing about your neighbor that annoyed you. He was one of those stereotypical owners who bought his hybrid for the sake of hopping on a bandwagon. Because "everyone had one", that meant that people felt like they somehow needed a hybrid in their homes, as if hybrids were some sort of trendy product, only to ignore them and mistreat them. The mere idea of "owning" another living being made you shudder. Hybrids may have been half animal, but they had a human side, too, and they were just as capable of thinking for themselves as humans were. So why exactly did they have to be _pets_?

The thought made you extremely uncomfortable. Yeah, there was no way in hell you'd ever take in a hybrid.

Walking up to the hybrid adoption center, you stopped in front of the door and shifted uncomfortably. You really hated that stupid place. Hybrids may have been mere pets without rights in the eyes of the law and the general public, but to you the whole thing felt like you were living in the midst of some extreme form of human trafficking. Walking into a building and seeing a humanoid figure - hybrid or not - behind a glass wall for people to buy and sell like product almost felt apocalyptic to you.

God, why in the hell had you agreed to this?

Pushing through the doors, the one relief that you felt was the warmth that hit you after having been outside in the snow. You took off your gloves and shoved them into your coat pockets, rubbing your hands together in an attempt to warm them up. You turned to your left and made a beeline for the receptionist's desk, doing your best to ignore the rest of the building. The young woman sitting at the desk stopped typing to look up from her computer and smile at you. "Hi, how can I help you?”

"Um, I'm here to pick up an order... for some collars. Collars for the cat hybrid Minho. His owner is my neighbor."

The woman turned to her computer once more and began searching for your neighbor's order, the clicking of her mouse contrasting the silence of the rest of the building. "Ok.... I have something for a Minho living in Yeongseong Apartment? Room 701? Is that correct?"

You nodded. "Yes, that's correct."

"Alright, give me just a minute and I'll go get those for you."

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

She stood up and turned to go retrieve your neighbor's product, replying with a small "you're welcome" before she slipped out into a room not far behind her desk.

As you stood waiting for her to return, two men made their way from down the hall to where you were standing. The shorter of the two was wrapping medical bandage around his arm, cursing and saying something about a "stupid fucking dog", while the taller of the two only shook his head.

When the two came to stand next to you, the taller spoke. "Hello, ma'am. Did you see where Miss Kim went?"

"Miss... who?"

"Ah... the lady who was sitting at this desk."

"Oh. She went back into that room to get an order I came to pick up. She should be back soon."

"I see. Tha - "

"I'm sick of that damn dog!" The shorter man shouted all of a sudden.

The taller gave you an apologetic look, before turning to his partner and saying, "It's no use crying over spilt milk now. We'll be done with him soon. Him and that cat."

The shorter man completely ignored the other’s attempts to console him, snapping, "Why in the hell did we even waste our time on that thing?! All he's been doing is taking up a perfectly good space when we could've be using that for another hybrid that we could actually sell! I'll tell you the same thing I said when we first got him - once aggressive, always aggressive."

"We had to try. He's one of the rarer kinds, you know. Could've been worth a lot if we'd been able to retrain him."

"Retrain him my ass! You can't teach those things anything!"

Just as the taller man began to reply, the receptionist came out with your bag.

"Here you are, Miss," the receptionist said. "Sorry for the wait."

Still a bit flustered from the fuming man behind you, you stuttered, "O-Oh... That's alright."

The angry man stepped forward and slammed his hands on the table. "Update that hybrid's record. We're euthanizing him and the cat."

"You’re what?!"

All three heads snapped towards you at your outburst, causing a blush to rise to your cheeks. "I- um - that is..."

"Ma'am, he's an extremely aggressive predator. He'd be a danger to anyone who tried to adopt him. We're just doing what's best," The taller man said.

"H-Have you tried to... calm him, or something?"

The shorter lifted his hand from the desk and stood up straight, saying, "I've wasted _months_ on that damn thing. No amount of 'retraining' is going to fix it. In fact, the only thing having him here managed to accomplish was fucking up a cat hybrid he took a liking to, so now we have to euthanize both!"

You paused, processing the man's statement. "Wait, so... _you_ were the one doing the training?"

"Well there's not anyone else around here to do it now is there?"

For some reason, his answer irritated you. Annoyed, you grumbled, "Well, no wonder he's aggressive. I'd be aggressive too if I had to deal with _you_ all day."

The fury you saw morph into his expression caused you to tense, but luckily the taller and calmer man was one step ahead of you, grabbing the man from behind just as he went to lunge at you and yelled, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

For a moment, you stood frozen at his outburst, but that feeling was quickly replaced with anger as you narrowed your eyes, raising your voice ever so slightly, saying, "I said I bet that you're a shitty trainer and that you only made it worse!"

"You think my job is easy?!" He screamed.

"I could do a way better job retraining a hybrid than you!!" You snapped back, your own voice now joining his at maximum volume.

"Yeah?! Well why don't you fucking try it, then?! See if that thing doesn't eat you alive!"

"Alright I will! And if I can get him to be calm then I get to take him home!"

"Deal!" He shoved the other man off of him. "As long as it's out of my hair I don't give a fuck!" With that, he turned on his heel and marched down the hall.

"Miss," the calmer man began, "be rational - "

You didn't even wait for him to finish his sentence before marching off behind the jerk you'd yelled at, leaving him and the receptionist to stare at the two of you in shock. You were too stubborn to think about what you were doing, glaring angrily at the back of the man as he lead you back to the room where he kept the two hybrids he planned to euthanize. He stopped in front of a door and pulled out his keys to unlock it, saying, "You have five minutes. If it doesn't leave with you _calmly_ , then I'm killing it now." He threw the door open and shoved you in, closing and locking the door behind you.

The room was quite small. A square room with blank white walls and one extremely uncomfortable looking cot in the corner. It reminded you of the isolation cells used in prisons, making you sad. Of course the poor hybrid had responded aggressively. Locked up and isolated in a barren room, only being able to see a cruel, angry man who yelled at him when he came in? How else was the hybrid supposed to react?

You were so busy observing the cold room, lost in your thoughts, that you didn't notice the predatory eyes staring you down until you head a low growl coming from your right, causing you to jump and turn to face the hybrid, freezing when the two of you locked eyes.

Now, you didn't know very much about hybrids. In fact, you really didn't know anything about them at all. The only hybrid you'd ever had any kind of interaction with was Minho, and he was just a mischievous, attention-seeking cat looking to be entertained. But, an aggressive hybrid? A supposed dog hybrid? A hybrid who hadn't been very well socialized with humans and was therefore looking at you like he was planning on ripping you apart? Yeah, you had no idea what you'd gotten yourself into. Moreover...

"I thought you were supposed to be a dog hybrid," you stated nervously through a breathy laugh.

The hybrid, who had pointy grey ears and a fluffy grey tail that looked suspiciously reminiscent of a wolf, made no attempt to respond to your half-hearted joke, his ears pulled flat against his curly grey hair as he snarled at you. He was tall, with broad shoulders and defined muscles visible beneath his shirt. You gulped, feeling a spark of terror course through you as you tried to remain strong, in spite of your wobbly legs and shaky hands. "Hah, I guess you don't talk much."

He didn't move a muscle.

"L-Look. I'll make this quick, because I don't have much time. I'm... I'm here to take you home with me. I don't know if you know this, but those people are planning to euthanize you. And... I-I don't want that. I don't want you to die. So... I know you don't know me, and you don't really have any reason to trust me, but... I just want to help you."

He remained still, his eyes unwavering on you, but the growl he'd been maintaining in the back of his throat ceased. Seeing this as a good sign, you continued, "Anything is better than dying, right?"

"What about Felix?" He demanded.

"Fe- who?"

"Felix. I'm not leaving him here."

"I don't know what you're - "

It was then that a much smaller hybrid poked his head out from behind the wolf hybrid. Blonde hair and golden pointy ears with a long, slender golden tail which you hadn’t noticed before wrapped around the bigger hybrid's leg. A cat hybrid.

_"Ah, he's the one they were talking about earlier. I forgot about him."_

"Right, him too. I was told that if I could get you two to come with me without attacking me or anyone else then they would let you both live. They're planning on hurting both of you, so..."

He began growling again. "I'd rather die than sell myself to another human."

"I-I'm not trying to buy you. I didn't come here to _buy_ anyone. I just - I overheard them talking about you, and I didn't want anything bad to happen, so I - "

"How do we know something bad won't happen with _you_?"

"I... you don't. You don't, because you don't know me. But you don't have a choice - "

"I do have a choice. And I'll die before I go through another day of this abuse."

You felt tears well up in your eyes, frustrated because you didn't know how to convince him to come with you. He was going to die needlessly and there was nothing you could do. You took in a shaky breath, fighting back tears as you begged, "Please - "

"I don't want to die," a voice whispered quietly.

You and the (you assumed he was) wolf hybrid turned your heads to look at the cat hybrid behind him, who was now looking up at the wolf with tears rolling down his cheeks. "Please, hyung, I don't want to die." He whimpered as he balled the wolf hybrid's shirt up in his fists.

"I - " the wolf began.

The door swung open, hitting you on the back in the process and causing you to stumble forward. Before you could fall, two hands stretched out and caught you by your shoulders. You looked up, your eyes still glossy, to see the wolf hybrid looking down at you with his hands on you shoulders.

"See?" The man said. "The damn thing isn't going to come with you, so do yourself a favor before you get hurt and just - "

"We're going with her," said the wolf hybrid, without breaking eye contact with you.

The man stopped, his eyes widening as his jaw dropped. "You - _what_?"

The wolf lifted his gaze from yours to the man's, letting go of your shoulders in the process and turning to face him. "I said we're going."

You could only stare at the hybrid in awe, relief washing over you as you shed a few tears of happiness. "I'm so relieved," you whispered.

Somehow, this phrase snapped the man out of his stupor; his eyes landed on you and he began walking towards you, snarling, "You... Who the hell do you think you are?!" He raised his hand to hit you, causing you to flinch and stumble backwards, but the wolf hybrid stepped in front of you and caught his arm before he could do so. The man started screaming out curses in anger, but the taller man from before ran into the room and, once again, pulled the man back from behind. He held him back as he nodded his head at the door for you and the two hybrids to leave.

Without thinking about it, you grabbed the two hybrids by their wrists - the wolf in your right hand and the cat, Felix, in your left - before whirling around and dashing out the door, dragging the two behind you. You didn't even realize what you'd done until you were already out the door and the wolf hybrid had shoved you forward from behind, jerking his wrist out of your grip and reaching over to pull Felix back in the process.

You caught your balance and turned around, wide eyed, fully expecting the wolf to attack you. "I-I-I-I'm sorry."

"Don't ever touch us again," he growled, before walking past you with Felix in tow and making his way out to the front of the building. You scrambled behind them, your heart racing from all of the anxiety you were experiencing today.

"Hello, how can I help you - ?" The receptionist stopped when she saw the three of you standing in front of her desk.

"That... That'll be $3,000."

"Three-thousand?!" You repeated in shock.

"Right... I know that's cheap, but the wolf hybrid is aggressive and untrained, and the cat hybrid is defective, so I'm giving you a sixty percent discount."

"Hybrids are that expensive?!" You cried, ignoring her statement, your jaw slack in shock.

"Have... you never had a hybrid before?" The woman asked, surprised.

"I - " You looked down, embarrassed.

"You sure talked a big game for someone who knows nothing about hybrids," she teased, smirking.

A bright blush spread across your cheeks as you snapped your head up to look at her. "W-Well they're alive now and that's what matters, isn't is?!"

"Pffft - "

Your head whipped around at the sound, looking over your shoulder at the wolf hybrid who was now laughing softly behind you.

"You- You're really something else, you know that?" He said between laughs.

You stared at him, unable to formulate a sentence, before narrowing your eyes as your blush darkened. "What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

He shook his head, smiling good-naturedly as he said, "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

You frowned at him before turning back to the receptionist and setting up your payment, filling out adoption papers for the two before the three of you left to go back home.

It wasn't until you arrived at your apartment that you realized that you'd completely forgotten about Minho's collars.


	2. I Declare Thee Chan

Sitting at your desk in the corner of your room, bent over your tablet, you worked as fast as you could to finish your project. While you enjoyed being able to work from home, as it gave you the advantage of being able to work at your own pace, deadlines often hung over your head, stressing you out, often causing you to work for hours on end with no breaks. Usually, your neighbor's cat hybrid, Minho, would come over to harass you out of your work, but for some odd reason he'd been avoiding your apartment for the last three days. You could only assume that it was because he smelled the wolf and cat hybrid that you were now cohabitating with, as you'd heard that unsocialized hybrids often became confrontational when meeting unfamiliar hybrids. Minho probably realized this, and his realization would be correct, as neither of the two hybrids seemed to enjoy any kind of change.

The wolf hybrid had adapted more easily than the cat hybrid, named Felix, had. Neither of them had told you anything about their lives prior meeting you, but it was your understanding that the wolf had experienced house living before, while Felix had been a stray. You, of course, had learned this from the receptionist at the hybrid adoption center when you had adopted the two, as neither were willing to tell you anything about themselves. She'd told you that the wolf had been a trained guard dog of some kind, while Felix had been found as a stray and taken to the shelter to be sold. However, neither had been able to find new owners, as both were deemed "problematic". The wolf hybrid, of course, had been aggressive towards the staff and other hybrids, but it was Felix's supposed "issue" that surprised you.

The woman had given you a discount when adopting the two, claiming that they weren't worth their usual prices considering that the wolf was aggressive and the cat was "defective". When you'd asked her what she meant by this, she'd told you that Felix did not meet the cat hybrid "breed standard". His features, according to the receptionist, didn't match that of the "ideal cat hybrid", and therefore he wasn't worth very much. When you were only able to stare at her in confusion, she'd said, "Think about dog breeds. Felix should be a golden retriever, but he has the wrong colorations and his fur isn't the right texture. He isn't a purebred; he's a mutt."

It was ridiculous - laughable, even.

What was so wrong with Felix, anyway? The woman hadn't told you what exactly made Felix "defective", and you hadn't asked (because you didn't care), but you, for one, found him to be extremely cute. Why the hell was there a "breed standard" for _hybrids_ , of all things? It had to have been one of the stupidest things you'd ever head.

Though neither of the two hybrids were particularly aggressive or skittish around you, they didn't seem to be very fond of you, either. They didn't speak to you much, if at all, and they avoided being in your presence as often as they could throughout the day. You only had two bedrooms in your small apartment, and the two had chosen to share your spare bedroom. They stayed holed up back there throughout most of the day, only leaving to steal food from your pantry. You were hoping that they'd come out of their shells on their own, but the last three days had been... awkward, to say the least.

_BAM!_

You jumped in your seat, jerking your gaze away from your tablet to look at your bedroom door. Brown ears pulled back against his head and tail swishing frantically back and forth against the door - which he had his back against - Minho's eyes were wide as he looked over his shoulder, as if he were taking cover and watching around a corner for an enemy to shoot at him. You had to fight back a laugh at how ridiculous he looked.

"I haven't seen you in almost three days," you chuckled, amused.

He looked at you from his position barricading the door, reaching behind him to lock it before walking towards you, an annoyed expression forming on his face as he narrowed his eyes. "I thought you said you would _never_ adopt any hybrids."

"Yeah... It turned out that way."

He smirked, spinning around and leaning back against the desk to look out the window. "Changed your mind over time? Am I _that_ charming?" You only rolled your eyes in response, but he ignored your gesture (he wasn't even looking at you) and continued. "I'll have you know that there will never be another hybrid like me, but I guess a wolf hybrid would be an interesting find."

You raised an eyebrow. "So he _is_ a wolf?"

Minho glanced back at you. "You didn't know?"

"I had my suspicions, but the staff at the hybrid adoption center didn't tell me much about either of them."

Minho nodded, before turning his attention to your tablet, his face immediately lighting up. "Oooohhh is that the last chapter? Does Kai die?" He dove over your desk to try and sneak a peak at what you were working on, but you quickly reached for the power button so that the screen went black.

"Don't even try it, Minho. You can see the finale when everybody else does."

He frowned. "I thought being friends with a comic book artist was supposed to have benefits."

"You get the benefit of being graced with my presence every single day."

Minho scoffed at this. "That's a benefit?"

"You're a little rude today, aren't you?"

"I'm annoyed."

"Why?"

"Because there are strange hybrids in my territory, and _you_ brought them here." At this, he stood up straight, folding his arms as he said, "I thought we had an arrangement."

"First of all, this is not your territory." He rolled his eyes at this. "Your territory is across the hall. Second, while I'm sorry for breaking your trust- " (you were being sarcastic here) "- I am not sorry for bringing them here. They were going to die and I didn't have much of a choice. And _third of all_ , you and I have made no such agreement."

"Just because you aren't my owner doesn't mean that I'm not a part of this household too. You and I both know that I'm the only hybrid in your life."

"And you were planning to do what exactly when your owner or I moved?"

He smirked as he leaned forward and put his hands on your desk once more. "I wasn't planning on allowing either of you to do that. I'm perfectly content here, thanks."

"Good to know, Minho. Good to know."

Minho was a brat, but you loved him. You'd moved into your apartment several years ago, and your neighbor had come from across the hall to greet you. Minho, curious as a cat should be, came to investigate you the next day after his owner had gone to work. He immediately deemed you the perfect slave, and so the two of you developed a routine and you hadn't broken out of it since. From day one, the two of you had hit it off, teasing and joking with one another as if you'd been friends your whole lives. Maybe your relationship was a bit strange, but Minho was your best friend, and although he rarely admitted it, you knew that he felt the same.

Truth be told, your job made it a little hard for you to make friends. You were a comic book artist, so most of your days were spent drawing panels on your tablet. You spent a good bit of time discussing the story and art with your team and publishing company, but even though you got along well with _most_ of your team (there were certainly a few whom you felt to be a pain in the ass), you all went your separate ways outside of work. Even then, you didn't spend much time with them, as your job was to draw the line art of the comic and leave coloring and backgrounds to your assistants, which you submitted your work to them and your editors and such through email. You also wrote your own stories, although your company was more interested in money than a good story, so you had found yourself arguing with them over your choice of direction more than a few times in the past. Luckily, your work did well, so you typically got away with risky decisions.

Standing up, you stretched and glanced at the time. "It's about lunch time. Wanna come eat with me?"

"Of course."

The two of you made your way to the kitchen, Minho asking you more questions about the two hybrids.

"What are their names?"

You opened the cabinets above your kitchen counter and reached for the ramen, but you were too short to reach the shelf. "The cat hybrid is Felix, and the wolf... Well, actually, I don't know what his name is."

Minho walked up behind you and got the ramen out easily, handing it to you from over your shoulder with a teasing smirk on his face. "You didn't ask, shorty?"

You frowned, snatching the ramen from him. " _No_ , I did ask, he just didn't give me a straight answer." You paused, trying to remember what else you needed, before pulling out a pot and filling it with water, turning on the stove as you added, "He might not have ever had one."

"So, what, were you planning on calling him 'wolf' for the rest of his life?" Minho teased.

You groaned. "No, I just haven't come up with a good name yet. I didn't know if he would like the one I came up with."

"What _did_ you come up with?"

"...Hyunseok."

Minho burst into laughter.

"What? What's so funny about the name Hyunseok?" You asked defensively.

"Aren't you supposed to be good at coming up with names? (Name), that's... lame."

"It's not lame! What do you have against all the Hyunseoks out there?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, it just doesn't fit him."

"How do you know? You haven't even _met_ him."

"He's a wolf hybrid. His name needs to be... interesting."

"Like what?"

"Like... Minho?"

You rolled your eyes.

He laughed. "He needs to be something like..." He put his hand to his chin, trying to think of a good name.

Just then, the wolf hybrid and Felix walked into the kitchen, the wolf eyeing Minho with his ears pulled back and Felix looking over at the stove to see what you were making, sniffing the air as he did so.

"Hey, I'm making some ramen for Minho and me. Would you two like some?"

"Ramen?" Felix asked.

"It's really good. You should try it."

"Oh... ok."

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The wolf hybrid growled at Minho, thoroughly ignoring you and your offer for ramen.

Minho smiled mischievously at the wolf hybrid. "I'm Minho and I live across the hall. I come here all the time. Don't tell me you're trying to pretend you didn't smell me?"

The wolf didn't reply to Minho's teasing, only glaring at him suspiciously as he said, "Shouldn't you be in your own territory, then?"

"This _is_ my territory, Channie," Minho said.

"Yeah, I don't think so. I - Wait, what? Channie?"

Minho grinned proudly at him. "Yep. Channie. Chan. I declare thee Chan."

"That's lame," you grumbled saltily, not wanting to admit that Minho's name somehow fit the wolf hybrid way better than yours did.

"Wh- What?" The wolf hybrid stuttered, flustered at Minho's abrasiveness.

"(Name) said you don't have a name. I'm giving you one. You're welcome."

Felix's eyes lit up at this. "A name? I like Chan."

You sighed. "I like Chan too," you admitted in defeat.

"Yay, Channie!" Felix yipped excitedly as he jumped up and back hugged the wolf hybrid (who was now known as Chan).

"W-Wait, I didn't agree to this!" Chan cried, a light blush appearing on his face.

"Too bad. _We_ agreed to it. Three to one, majority wins," Minho said.

Felix detached himself from Chan, his tail happily flicking back and forth in the air as he walked up to Minho. "I'm Felix."

"Hello," Minho said.

"Do you like to play? Chan doesn't play very much," Felix said.

"Sure, let's play." The two zoomed off, changing into their cat forms as they chased one another through the apartment.

"W-Wait..." Chan called after the two helplessly.

"Minho is... Once he makes up his mind, he won't change it. I'm sorry for not mentioning him earlier. He lives across the hall with his owner. He comes over most every day. He's too stubborn to back down, so you'll just have to get used to him, Channie."

Chan shot you a look at the nickname. "It's Chan."

"So you accept it?"

"No, but Felix said he likes it so whatever." He grumbled, before coming to stand next to you and watch you make ramen for the four of you.

You got the feeling that he secretly liked the name.

When the ramen was finished, the four of you ate together, friendly conversation filling your kitchen. Felix seemed to really like Minho (you assumed it was because Minho was his fellow cat hybrid). Chan sat in the corner grumbling about "stupid cats" while glaring at his bowl of ramen, but his ears were in a relaxed position, so you got the sense that he was only sulking rather than actually being angry. The sight made you smile. For the first time, your lonely apartment really felt like...

A home. Your apartment had been transformed into a home.


	3. Someday I'll See Your Smile

There was something... _off_ about Felix.

Even around Minho, whom he'd become well acquainted with over the past couple of weeks, he was eerily quiet. He hardly ever spoke, and when he did, he would stumble over his words, stuttering out a string of words and phrases with few (if any) complete sentences. Whenever you or Minho spoke to him, he'd often stare at you blankly, before asking you to repeat yourselves, as if he didn't understand you. You were inclined to believe that this was because of his life as a stray, like maybe he'd never been taught to speak properly, but this wasn't the only thing about him that put you off.

In addition to his odd speech habits, the cat hybrid's voice was exceptionally deep. So deep that, when he'd first spoken to you, you hadn't even realized that it was him. But when you'd looked around to find the source of the unfamiliar voice and only Felix was there, you'd realized that it was him who had spoken to you. He mispronounced a lot of his words, and sometimes he would say things you didn't understand in the middle of his "sentences". When the four of you were together, chatting about whatever the topic was that day, it was common for him to drop out of the conversation altogether.

No matter how many angles you looked at it from, you just couldn't wrap you head around his strange behavior, or more importantly, how to fix it. You didn't know how to teach the Korean language to someone who struggled to speak; you thought about showing him some videos for teaching younger children online, but you didn't know how to bring it up. After all, even though the two hybrids had gotten more comfortable with your new living situations, things were still awkward between the four of you. And besides that, Chan was still extremely protective over Felix, so you worried that trying to butt into their personal matters would piss him off.

On the subject of Chan, the wolf hybrid's reaction to Minho was the complete opposite of Felix's. He _hated_ it whenever Minho came over, growling and mumbling under his breath. He'd watch Minho's every move as if he were some kind of threat, and if he tried to approach Felix first, Chan would start growling even louder than before. He did the same to you if you made any sudden movements, so you learned not to bother the two hybrids if they didn't come to you first. Minho, however, was braver than you were, and often ignored the wolf hybrid's threats - in fact, he seemed to find entertainment in annoying the wolf, so most of the time, Chan's growls only encouraged him to continue his actions.

It was just the beginning of December, and even though you turned the heater on in your apartment, the freezing cold temperatures from outside still managed to seep through into your home. You'd bought the two hybrids lots of warm clothing and blankets, but some days even that wasn't enough to stop you from feeling cold.

It was this that lead to your first real breakthrough with the two hybrids.

You were working on wrapping up the final chapters of your comic, staying up late into the night just to get things done. You kept drawing and redrawing the panels, desperate to have an absolutely perfect finale for one of your proudest works. While you drilled through your work like this, dragging your tablet over to your bed so that you could bundle up in blankets and pillows, the hybrids entertained themselves in some way or another out in your living room. However, after a while, they exhausted one another (cats did sleep frequently, after all), and Minho came to join you in your bed. At first, he tried to steal a glance at your work, but when you chastised him for it, he smiled tiredly at you before climbing underneath your pile of pillows and blankets and resting his head on your lap, cuddling up to you as he sought warmth.

It took some time before you were finally satisfied with your project, working tirelessly throughout the days, but Minho's midday cuddles always made your frustration a bit more bearable. It was on the evening of the fourth and final day of your workathon, after Minho had left for the evening, when Felix poked his head through the door and watched you curiously. Truth be told, you were so focused on your work that you didn't even notice him until he was crawling underneath your blankets and settling into the spot previously occupied by Minho. Surprised, because the only one who ever cuddled with you was Minho and you'd thought that he had already gone home, you were shocked when you looked down to find not Minho but Felix's head on your stomach, arms wrapped around your thigh as his eyes roamed the tablet in front of you. You were so shocked that you forgot to pull it away from him, but then again if he didn't speak well, he probably didn't read well either, and that aside you doubted he knew the characters or story anyway.

You didn't know what to say or do, as you hadn't expected him to come and cuddle you out of nowhere - all you could do was stare at him in shock, before the situation finally registered in your brain, and you said, "Why...?"

"It's warm," He mumbled sleepily. "Chan is... not... bed..." he frowned as he tried to formulate a proper sentence.

"Chan's not in your bed for you to cuddle?"

He squinted his eyes thoughtfully, trying to process your sentence. "Y-Yeah..." He seemed uncertain of himself as he said this, before adding, "It's warm here."

You nodded, before turning your attention back to your tablet. Despite your initial shock, you quickly became used to his presence there, falling into a comfortable silence as your focus realigned with your work. You were so used to Minho doing the same thing that you eventually forgot he was even there, working for several more hours while Felix watched you draw. Some time later, you finished the final chapter, only to look down and find Felix fast asleep in your lap. You glanced out the window to find that the outside world was now pitch black, and the time on your clock showed 11:06pm.

"I don't think Chan will be happy when he finds you here," you said quietly to the sleeping hybrid, unaware of the fact that the wolf hybrid had already entered and left the room hours ago.

You set your tablet on your bedside table and watched Felix as he slept, quickly becoming lost in your thoughts. He and Chan both were complete mysteries to you. You didn't know anything about them, and it left you with so many questions, most of them being about Felix. What made him "defective"? Why couldn't he speak well? How did a stray have a name when Chan, who had in fact had owners before you, didn't? Had he known any other hybrids on the streets or had he been forced to face the world on his own? Why were he and Chan so attached to each other? Why did Chan not only feel threatened by humans, but by hybrids too? And why did they both seem so...

Sad.

You had only ever really known one hybrid in your life, and that hybrid was Minho. But before ever moving into your apartment and meeting the cat hybrid, you'd known several neighbors and coworkers with hybrids whom you'd met once or twice. The one thing that they all seemed to have in common - every stray, pet, and service hybrid you'd ever met - was that they all seemed to be incredibly sad. Maybe that was why you had avoided them for so long; the first hybrid you'd ever seen truly smile had been Minho, but even he sometimes held a mournful and forlorn look in his eyes, as if he were longing for something you couldn't identify. Was it because of the abuse they received from humans? The way that they were looked down on and treated like animals?

It was that night, as you watched Felix sleeping soundly in your lap, that you made up your mind. You would do anything to prove to yourself that a hybrid can be happy with their life, and you would do so through the two hybrids that you were now responsible for. Somehow, someway, you would see their smiles. You would find a way to make them happy and comfortable living here with you. So far, you'd only avoided them, afraid to cross their boundaries, but going forward you decided that you were going to push them out of their comfort zones and show them what kind of a place the world could be. If you tried hard enough, then maybe, just maybe, you would be able to see what a hybrid looked like when they were happy. And it was this promise that lulled you to sleep.

You didn't know it then, but later you would realize that this was a beautiful sight, and it would only cause further determination to spur within you.


	4. Field Trip (Part 1)

Recently, you had become more aggressive in your approach to the two hybrids with whom you now shared your home.

At first, the air between the three of you was awkward, and you had done your best to stay away from them if they did not approach you first, but on one particular night, when you'd finally drawn the last panel of your comic, you'd found your resolve (and the time) to try and bring the hybrids out of their comfort zones. Your hope was that, with your attempts, you would be able to bring the light back into their sad eyes, if indeed there ever had been such a shine in their gazes.

However, the task you had set your mind to turned out to be far more difficult than you had initially thought. For one thing, communication with the cat hybrid you had taken in, named Felix, was a challenge. For reasons unknown to you, the poor hybrid didn't speak very well, and he struggled to understand you, which made your job a lot harder. In addition to this, Chan, the wolf hybrid, seemed determined to keep you at arms length. At first, you had taken his actions as simple aggression and mistrust, and perhaps a bit of protectiveness in regards to Felix, but the more you tried to break down his walls, the more you realized that his problem wasn't quite what you'd thought it was.

As you got to know Chan, you began to see things in his behavior that you hadn't noticed before. When you finally started to really try to bring him out of his shell, you realized that Chan's aggression was not out of anger or mistrust for humans. Rather, you came to understand that Chan was acting on instinct - a fear instinct. Why exactly he was afraid of you and other humans, you didn't know. It was possible that he had been mistreated in the past, but you felt that the two of you still weren't close enough for you to ask. What was interesting about this was that his aggression towards other hybrids - aka Minho - seemed to stem from the same fear. It was peculiar, but nonetheless it was a game changer for you.

Having come to this realization, you changed tactics when interacting with Chan. Rather than trying to avoid "angering" him, you focused on showing him that he had nothing to be afraid of. You tried to speak to him more often, and when you did you always made sure to ask him about his opinions on whatever subject you happened to be discussing, hoping that he would gain more confidence this way. You also tried doing small things for him, whether that be cooking lunch and inviting him to eat with you or buying things for him when you were shopping out in town or online. This lead to him being flustered often, caught off guard when given the chance to voice his own opinions and to be your equal, but the more you did it, the more he relaxed around you. In fact, after some time of your doing this, he started coming to _you_ about things he wanted to discuss or ask about, rather than the other way around. Your relationship was blossoming, and you were beyond ecstatic about that.

In terms of Felix, Minho was doing most of the work for you in terms of opening him up, as Felix seemed to adore the older cat hybrid and they often dragged one another into their shenanigans. While this annoyed you, since Minho especially had a habit of causing mischief, it was still good to see Felix happy and having fun. However, this didn't mean that you didn't have anything to do with him. Instead of focusing on his progress, you opted to spend your time trying to get closer to him, deciding that it was best to let him adapt naturally, since he already seemed to be doing so really well. As it turned out, Felix really enjoyed video games, which you happened to discover one night when he'd come to cuddle with you in bed (it had become routine for him to join you for a few hours each night after he'd done so the first time when you'd been finishing up your comic, although he always went back to Chan when he was ready to go to sleep). Wanting to destress from the process of finalizing your comic, you'd turned on your PlayStation to play a game when Felix had asked you what you were doing. You'd gotten out a second controller and showed him how to play, and thus it became your nightly routine to play a few games together and cuddle. This ended up being a great bonding exercise for the two of you.

Even though you had finished drawing the panels, you still had quite a bit of work left to do before the project was truly finished. Between promoting the upcoming finale, meetings with your team, and some last minute paperwork, you were still relatively busy, although not as much as before. Today, you were going to your publishing company's headquarters for your very last meeting with your team, intending to finalize the project and make any last minute changes that you felt were necessary before signing the final documents and officially ending the project.

The meeting was to begin at 10:00 am, and so you were putting on your coat when Minho poked his head in the door, still in his pajamas. Having just woken up, he was only just now arriving at your apartment.

He tilted his head to the side. "What's with the getup? Are you going somewhere?"

You reached for your gloves and pulled them on, before grabbing your bag and a beanie and making your way past Minho to the front door. "I'm about to meet with the company about the comic. We're just finishing up the project and signing some paperwork, nothing special. After that I have a few errands to run and then I'm headed home. Shouldn't take me too long; I'll be back sometime after lunch."

"How long will the meeting be?"

"Hmmm... We aren't doing very much. Thirty minutes max? Probably less than that." You reached down for your snow boots and put them on, glancing back at Minho over your shoulder and asking, "Why? Do you want to come?"

He nodded. "I want to come."

"Go back to your apartment and go get dressed, then. Put on some warm clothes. And be quick, I can't be late for this meeting."

He saluted you. "Roger." Then he raced out the door and across the hall. You pulled out your phone to check the time, wondering if you had time to stop and grab Minho something to snack on to hold him over until lunch.

"Go... where?"

You looked up to see Felix giving you a curious look. "I have to go to a meeting at work, remember? Minho is coming with me, so it'll just be you and Chan at home today. We'll be back after lunch, so you two should eat without us."

He hesitated, frowning ever so slightly at your words. "I want go."

You raised your eyebrow in surprise. "You want to come with us?"

He nodded.

You glanced at the time once more, wincing because you knew that you needed to hurry. "Alright," you said, a bit hesitantly. "Go change into something warm. Be sure you wear your big coat, your gloves, and your beanie. It's cold outside."

He smiled and nodded excitedly, causing you to chuckle as he whirled around and ran back to his and Chan's room.

A few minutes later, Minho came back in, and soon after Felix came out to join you - with Chan in tow.

"Chan, you're coming too?" You asked, wondering how your company would react to you bringing not one, not two, but three hybrids with you to your workplace.

"Apparently," He mumbled, giving Felix a look that reminded you of the tired dad getting dragged to the amusement park by his son. You couldn't help but giggle at the thought.

"Listen, you two. Minho already knows this, but even when you're with your owners, hybrids are required to wear collars outside. Without one, you'll be dragged to the hybrid control station, and I'll have to come by to claim you and pay a fee. If you're not claimed within forty eight hours, you'll be sent to the adoption center. So you're going to have to wear these. I know it's stupid, but it's the law, and I can't lose you." You handed them the collars hung by the door that you'd bought for them some time ago, Felix's being navy blue and Chan's red.

They both took the collars from you and nodded in understanding, putting the collars on themselves and then following you out the door. You couldn't help but think that the four of you looked like ducks with the way the three hybrids followed close behind you as if you were the mama duck. It was a humorous sight, if not a cute one.

The four of you rode the bus to get to your workplace. Since the seats were in rows of two, you sat on the inside, next to Chan, and Felix and Minho sat in the row in front of you (you had wanted them to sit in front of you so that you could see them). Chan was quiet, watching the buildings and cars pass by through the window, but Felix and Minho were trilling and chirping at each other excitedly. Since Felix didn't seem to speak and understand Korean very well, this had become his and Minho's way of communicating. Of course, you couldn't fully understand them, but they both seemed pretty happy, especially Felix. However, you couldn't help but notice that several of the other people riding the bus were giving you strange looks. Some of them were looking at Minho and Felix as if they were annoyed - you didn't know _why_ , since their meows were quiet, and there were plenty of people on the bus with you talking amongst themselves - while others looked at Chan as if they were uncomfortable. This staring seemed to make Chan uncomfortable, too, and you sensed that that was why he was trying to focus on the window.

Once you arrived at your stop, you lead your three little ducklings down the sidewalk and around the block to your company's headquarters. The building was big, having several floors, and it was quite crowded. Neither Minho nor Felix seemed to mind this, however Chan was looking around frantically, as if he were expecting some sort of threat, and he stuck so close to you that his chest was practically on your back. Occasionally, someone across the lobby would make a loud sound, like laughter or something of the sort, and Chan would let out a low growl in response.

You reached a hand back to grab onto his, pulling him out from behind you to walk next to you while the other two followed close behind, still chirping at one another. "If you were going to be uncomfortable, you shouldn't have come. You didn't need to force yourself to do this just because the rest of us were going, you know."

Chan looked down at the floor in front of him, his ears falling down as he said, "I couldn't just let you three go out on your own."

You looked up at him beside you, frowning. "What do you mean by that?"

"N-Nothing, really..."

You only pressed him further. "Why couldn't the three of us go out 'on our own'?"

"It's just - I - " He sighed, clearly frustrated. Then he mumbled something you couldn't hear.

"Sorry, Chan, could you speak up? I couldn't understand you."

"Icouldn'tletmypackgooutsidewithoutmetheretoprotectthem."

It took you a few second to process what he'd just said, your mouth dropping slightly in shock. "Pack - protect - what - "

Chan blushed and turned his head to look to the side away from you, embarrassed. "The alpha is supposed to protect his pack. You - You never know what could happen, especially outside of the den."

You stared at him in shock, almost taking a wrong turn in the process. "I - wait, who are you talking about? I thought you didn't like Minho? You need at least three of you for it to be a pack, and - "

"It's four of us. And... I never said I didn't like him."

You blushed, realizing that he was including you as part of their pack. You looked away from him, forcing yourself to focus on where you were going. When had he accepted you and Minho as a part of his life? Not just that, but his pack? You knew that it was common for bigger groups of hybrids to form packs, even with different species of hybrids, but you hadn't expected your hybrids to do so. You'd assumed that the four of you were more like... Well, you didn't really know, but you certainly hadn't expected this, that's for sure. When had the two of you become part of the family?

Family? Were the four of you - ?

"(Last Name)! There you are! We're supposed to start in less than two minutes, hurry it up!"

You forced yourself to focus back on the task at hand at the sound of your boss's voice. "Sorry about that Mr Kim, I was a little behind this morning. It's been a while, how are you?"

Mr Kim smiled at you (it was an extremely fake smile - the two of you couldn't stand each other) and said, "I've been doing well. And you? I see you brought your... pets."

You cringed at his use of the word 'pets'. "Ah... I have some errands to run after this that involve them. I assume they can't come in to the meeting with me, right?"

"They'll have to wait outside."

"I expected that." You made eye contact with all three hybrids, who took that as their cue to sit in the chairs in the hallway just outside of the meeting room (although Felix started to follow you into the room, but Chan pulled him back gently). "I'll be right back, ok?" They nodded.

You stepped into the meeting room, taking your seat at the table across from Mr Kim. "How's your wife?" You asked, trying to be polite in spite of how much of a pain in the ass he had been over the past several years you'd worked together.

"Spoiled, as always. Thinks she owns the house. You know how women are." You rolled your eyes at his statement. Personally, you found his wife to be even more annoying than he was, but that didn't make his statement right.

Mr Kim was a man in his mid-forties who had been a thorn in your side since the day you'd first met him. A member of your company's board of directors, he was one of those patriarchal, self important husbands that thought he was above everyone else around him. He was a snake who only cared about money and constantly stuck his nose in others' business (like now, someone in his position had no reason to attend this meeting). His wife, Mrs Kim, was just as much of a snake as he was, stealing money from her working husband without his knowledge (surprisingly, in spite of the fact that the man was obsessed with money) while she stayed at home all day and always looking down on everyone around her. She was one of those posh, gossiping older women who acted like she was the head of some wealthy conglomerate, when in fact she was just a regular, middle class citizen. You weren't entirely sure why the two of them were together, as there seemed to be no love in their relationship - they'd gotten married in their early twenties, long before meeting you, but you imagined that it had been an unpleasant wedding.

Your project manager came in soon after the two of you did, and some minutes later one of your artists joined you (late as usual). With those two, everyone involved had arrived, and the meeting began. For the most part, it was a waste of time; there was some bickering here and there, but you all pretty much agreed on the way you were wrapping up the comic. You signed some papers after all the discussion, then shook hands to close out your partnership. You liked some people in your team, and you were interested in working with them again whenever you worked on your next comic, but others you were glad to finally be free from. The director, of course, made everyone unnecessarily uncomfortable, but things went smoothly and you were all done in just over twenty minutes. After shaking everyone's hands, you hurried to get out of the room as quickly as you could.

When you left the room, Minho, Felix, and Chan all instantly lit up at seeing you, tails wagging slowly when you said, "Now, let's go." They got up to follow behind you, but before you could turn the corner and make your way back down to the first floor, Mr Kim called out to your once more.

"(Last Name), wait just a moment." You stopped, turning to look at him. "I hope you've been thinking about your next comic?"

"I haven't, actually. I only just finished this one. I'm thinking about taking a short break before I start on my next story. I'll think about it during my downtime, though."

"Well, keep in mind that the last chapter will be published in a month. After that, your fans will be looking for you to come out with something new. You're popular, you know."

 _"Oh please,"_ You thought. _"You don't care about the fans, you just don't want to lose the income you know my comics bring in."_

"I'll remember that, thanks," You said, before turning around and walking away.

As you were making your way down the stairs to the first floor, Felix spoke up. "He was rude," He said in English.

You stopped at the bottom of the stairs, turning around to look at him. "Did you just speak in English?" You asked him, skeptical of whether or not you'd really just heard him say that.

Chan, Minho, and Felix all looked at you like you were crazy. "Well, yeah. He's from Australia, didn't you know that?" Minho asked you.

"H-He is?"

Minho snorted.

"Let's see... I believe he'd been in Korea for about two months before you came and bought us from the adoption center?" Chan said.

"You - He speaks English?"

"Well, that _is_ the language that they speak in Australia," Minho replied sarcastically.

"So - He's not - He _can_ speak?"

Minho burst into laughter.

"Well," Chan said, chuckling, "He's fluent in English and capable of communicating, if that's what you're referring to. He's just not very good at Korean yet." Chan smirked. "Why? Did you think he hadn't been taught to properly speak at all?" He asked teasingly.

You blushed, now feeling incredibly stupid for not having realized this sooner. "N-No! What?" You laughed nervously. "Of course not, don't be ridiculous!"

"Oh my god, you're so stupid!" Minho cackled.

"Sh-Shut up!" You cried, embarrassed.


End file.
